Simba

About two weeks ago, I was driving Andy back from his paper route.  It was about 5:00am in the morning.  It was snowing that morning and there was slush all over the roads.  As I turned the corner from Locust on to Falls I noticed a little animal in the road.  I looked closer because most animals in the road are squirrels.  This was a small animal but bigger than a squirrel.  On close inspection I noticed it was a dog.  There were other cars now driving down the roads and I could tell that if he (the dog) did not get out of the road, he would look like a dead squirrel.  So, I stopped the car, turned on my flashers, and tried to coax this little dog into the car.  He was hesitant and refused to get in, however, he was cold and he wanted to get out of the snowy weather so he slowly moved closer and closer to the car.  Finally, he got close enough so that I could scoop him up into the car and take him home.  Once he was home I would warm him up, call the animal shelter, and find the owner.  The poor little puppy didn't have any name tag nor collar.  We had no way of identifying who's dog it was.

The next morning I called the pound (animal shelter) and reported that we had found this little dog which was a mix of pomeranian and Chihuahua.  A couple of days went by and no phone calls for the dog.  I decided to make little fliers and hang them on some telephone poles near where we found him.  Katie and I posted several up all over the intersection.  Still no phone calls.

It has been 2 weeks now, so, as might be expected, all of the family has decided to keep the dog and name it Simba.  Below is a picture of Simba with his new collar.

University

Coby has been filling out applications for the last few months to see if he could get accepted into college. He has applied to Utah State, BYU Idaho and BYU Provo. In his application to BYU he ran into a glitch where they did not attach his High School transcript with his online application. So, with this error, it showed that he had not met the advanced application deadline. He had to call BYU and fix the problem but we were still a little worried that this problem might have caused him to miss this deadline and might make him ineligible to be accepted to BYU. After a few months of waiting, Coby received an acceptance letter from Utah State. He was very excited to receive this first letter of acceptance from any University. So, to show his excitement, he took his letter and taped it onto our front door with a little red bow. Below is a picture of this letter on the window.

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 Later, he found that several of his friends were receiving notice that they had been accepted to BYU Idaho. Again, we were a little worried that the issue with his transcript and his application were messed up but once he logged into his account online, he found that he had been accepted to BYU Idaho Fall Winter Track.

So, the final application to BYU Provo was still out under review. He had not heard any word, he had not seen any notification. However, this week Deanna and I noticed that one of his friends had posted on Facebook that she had been accepted to BYU Provo. We looked at each other and decided to wake Coby up and have him check his application account online at BYU. All of the family was around that kitchen table in our pajamas awaiting his review of his account online. He typed in his username and typed in what seemed 300 characters. He clicked and clicked and finally started to read, "Coby Carter, you have been accepted to attend BYU Provo in the Fall of 2012". A cheer rang out and the suspense was over. He had received an acceptance from all 3 Universities he had applied for. We are all very proud of Coby and his hard work to get him to this point and we are excited for him the choose which University he will want to attend in the fall. With this final response, we have now realized that Coby will indeed leave home in about 6 months. What in the world are we going to do? What in the world can we do to prepare him to leave home?

Malta Idaho

Every few months I travel to Malta Idaho to do some computer work for an electric company. Most of the time these trips are uneventful. Occasionally, however, I'll come across something unusual so I make sure I have my camera at the ready. This particular trip I was met by a herd of sheep so I quickly took out my camera phone and recorded the experience.

Cartoonist

I follow a blog called Mormon Cartoonist. This guy creates creative cartoons that he submits to the Friend, The Ensign and other LDS magazines. Many of his works make it to print. Anyway, as I as reading through some of his cartoons I started thinking about what would make a good cartoon. I can't draw worth a darn so being able to create one on my own would be a disaster, but, I could come up with an original idea for a cartoon. So, I started looking around in my life for something that might be good as a cartoon. One evening while talking to my sons, I came up with an idea for a cartoon. So, I went to Mormon Cartoonist and suggested a funny premise. A few days later I received a response that he would take my idea and make a comic that would come out in February. Well, February is finally here and below is his cartoon based from my idea.

Click on the link below to go to his website and see his comments about this cartoon.

http://www.mormoncartoonist.com/2012/02/eight-bit-love.html

Jive

Coby decided to try out for Jive last fall when the new school year was just starting. We were thrilled that he would want to join this dancing and singing group again. We were very proud of him during the last school year and enjoyed every concert and performance he was in. This year is no exception.

I must say that I was a little worried about this new group because almost all of the girls that were in Jive last year had graduated. So, there was only one returning Jive girl from last years gaggle of girls. However, this new group of girls are just as talented. There were only a few boys that returned as well so there were a lot of new kids joining Jive and performing with Jive for the first time.

Even with these big changes, Jive performed a wonderful "Winter Showcase" just a few weeks ago. We had many friends and family come to watch Coby perform and I think each one of them walked away very happy and impressed with the quality of singers and dancers in this year's Jive group.

As usual, I volunteered to make some videos for the transitions between songs when the Jive kids would have to change their clothes for their next number. Unfortunately I didn't come up with anything really creative but the videos still turned out really well.


Below is one of the numbers they did called Waka Waka. It is probably my favorite song and dance of this years program. I'll also put some links to some of the other videos that I made for the Winter Showcase.





http://youtu.be/hGmqJjjyxR0

http://youtu.be/WjH4fX88634

http://youtu.be/tP2TPxb8tXc

Evidence of Dad Snoring

While we were flipping through the video camera videos to make some room for Coby's Jive concert stuff, Deanna came across this video and had to show it to me.

Mexico Trip

Humm, I just discovered that I didn't write anything on this blog about my trip to Mexico.  So, here we go.  I hope it isn't to much of a repetition of what I wrote on the CAF website or the LDSFamily.net website.

Normally at this time of year I don't have much vacation time and I'm very busy at work.  This year, the busiest time was November to December opened up for me.  I looked at my vacation days and I had 5 days saved up.  The trip to Mexico was from Christmas which was Sunday this year and ended on the day after New Years which was Monday.  At work, we were given both Monday after Christmas and Monday after New Years off.  So, I only needed 4 days.  Coby struggled to get the time off at work but when push came to shove his boss decided to let him off of work the whole week since he was giving service to the needy in Mexico.  Tiffany was generous enough to let us use her "stand by" tickets to fly from SLC down to San Diego.  So, after a little tweaking and some miracles, I was headed to Mexico with Coby, Andy and Savanna.

You have probably seen my video that I made of the work and the play we did while in Mexico so I think I'll just talk about some of the things I thought about while down there.  Here are a couple of things that struck me while down there.  Keep in mind, I've been in 3rd world countries before and the poverty really doesn't shock me anymore.  I searched for things that I could use in my life.  Here are some of my thoughts.

As we crossed the boarder into Mexico it was interesting that I didn't need any identification, paperwork, visa, passport or any other paperwork.  I also noticed that there wasn't a line at all getting into Mexico.  We just walked across the boarder, through the gates and we were in.  I think I really only saw one official looking guy sitting at a table asking us to push a button to see if we were the lucky ones to be "checked".  Otherwise, it was pretty much void of security.  HOWEVER, when entering into the USA, there was a line of people, a line of cars, there were security all around.  There were several lines of people waiting to enter.  When we arrived at the start of the line we were asked for identification, passports, birth certificates and we were asked what we purchased and what we did while in Mexico.  The officer asked each of my kids a question or two and then he waved us in.  We then scanned our bags and were permitted into the United States of America.  Ok, so that seems pretty standard, how can this translate into a learning experience.  Well, for me, it was a "type" or an "example" of what it will be like at judgement after we die.  I believe that there are 3 kingdoms of glory that we can inherit.  Three degrees of glory.  After we die, it will be like the boarders of Mexico and the US.  It will be fairly easy to get into the lower degrees of glory.  There won't be a line, there won't be much security, there won't be much paperwork.  We will be able to just walk across, HOWEVER, to get in the highest glory, I'm sure we will have to have all of our paperwork in order.  There will be a line, there will be security, there will be documentation and questions that will be asked of us to determine whether we are allowed in this sacred location.  Ok, so it is a little stretch of the imagination but it seems to fit, at least in my mind.

Second, I have a new appreciate of rules, laws and police officers.  When traveling in Mexico there arn't man traffic regulations.  Some places there aren't any stop signs or stop lights.  In several locations we traveled the traffic was chaotic  First come first serve was the rule and if you were in a bigger car, you had the right of way.  There were pot holes, bumps, broken roads, speed bumps, and holes everywhere.  The roads were unkept and the drivers didn't obey the traffic rules.  Although it was sometimes pretty cool just to roll though a stop and keep moving if no one was there, it made me appreciate the rule of law in the USA.  Drivers are constantly aware of the laws and rules of the road because the police do a great job of making sure we are safe.  Without the enforcement of these driving laws, the US would not be as organized and safe as they are today.  They would fall in the chaos of what is happening just across the boarder in Mexico.

I had to be such a downer on Mexico but these were a couple of things that I tried to notice and be thankful for once I was back in the good old U S of A.

If you missed my video, you can watch it here.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BywKiQNmhqc

Here is something cool.  Below is the hospital we stayed at in Tijuana.




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Below is the little "tienda" where we went for snacks when we were hungry and where they let us use the bathroom.


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And below was one of the little lunch spots where we had "Tortas" for Lunch.



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BYU football game

I just found the best way to watch a football game. I found this on YouTube under BYU TV. These videos show an entire BYU football game with all of the plays and none of the commercials or slow time in between the action nor the time outs. SWEET!

Utah State

I came home one night from work and found this posted on our front door.

If you can't read it, it is an acceptance letter from Utah State University!!!!  Way to go Coby!!!

Christmas Letter

We have been so busy this year with everything going on in our lives that it was hard to crank out a Christmas letter and send it out to all of our friends and family.  However, we did it.  So, if you didn't happen to get a Christmas card from us this year because of mail delivery issues or something, here is what we sent out.

If you can't read this letter because it is too small, you might want to ask for reading glasses for Christmas.

Here is the photo we sent along with this letter.

43

43 isn't even a number that anyone remembers.  I don't know why but those numbers between the 0 and 5  and 5 and 10's just don't seem to have much significance once you hit 40, or even 30 for that matter.  Who even remembers when they were 33 or 37 or 43?  Nobody!  It is a year in your life that just kinda passes by without noticing.  In fact, when people ask me how old I am, I have a hard time remembering my age.  Humm, now, was I 42 or 43?  Hummm I don't even remember.  I think I'm 43?  Then I try to use my math skills to try and figure out how old I am.  Lets see.  I was born in 68. So, 2011 minus 1968 is ummm, carry the one, minus the 6 plus 10.  Then, you have to factor in that you haven't reached your date of birth for the year so do I add an extra year or subtract a year for my age.  This time I think I subtract. So, I end up looking like I did before in saying, I think I'm 43 years old.  The 20 something year old cashier looks at me like I'm a little bit crazy not knowing my own age.  Well young lady, (said in the oldest grandpa sounding voice I can muster in my head), when you are 43, you will have the same problem trying to remember the insignificant year of your life.  Now, I'm not saying that insignificant things happen.  There are very significant and important things that happen in some of these inconspicuous years.  It just happens to be years that don't help you remember how old you are.

So, even though I am 43, please don't ask me my age because I may fall into a stupor of thought that may result in my misrepresenting my true age.

Happy 43rd Birthday?
Clint

Letter to Santa

Katie wrote this wonderful letter to Santa Claus in fourth grade.  Notice how she asks for stuff for Mom and Dad first.  What a cutie!  *grin*

Katie Bball

This year Katie decided to put her name in the ring to play basketball. She was picked up by a little team of 4th grade girls and they started practicing.  Her coach was serious about the game and very dedicated.  They practiced every week and sometime twice a week in preparation for their games.  Katie is one of the tallest girls on the team and she also has a pretty good shot.  Although she is good, there are a couple other girls on the team that are much more aggressive.  After the first couple of games I could tell that this little group of girls had a pretty good team.  As the season rolled on Katie's team only lost one game.  This last weekend was the "tournament".  The first game they had was the semi finals.  They played a pretty well against a group of pretty rough girls but won.  They were set for the finals.  They were pitted against a team that they had dominated in both of their other match-ups.  Katie was feeling pretty confident but was also a little nervous about that "Championship Game".

Unfortunately, this tournament final proved to be the one game that none of their star players could make a basket.  Both teams stayed in the single digits all game long.  We came down to the final two minutes and each team had 8 points.  Both teams were scrambling to try and make that game wining shot.  One of Katie's team mates fouled and a point was made on the free throw line.  This brought the total score to 8/9.  Katie's team needed a field goal or a foul shot to tie or win the game.  Several attempts were made at the basket but nothing would drop.  On three of these attempted shots Katie's team was fouled and put on the free throw line.  Each excruciating attempt bounced off the rim unsuccessfully.  Time finally ran out and the game was over.  "Fever" (the name of Katie's team) 8 and the other team 9.  Katie was definitely disappointed and didn't want to say much about losing this game.  You could tell that she was holding back tears and felt bad that they had lost.  After winning each game all season, they lost in the finals to a team they had beat twice.  I guess that it life sometimes.

Here are some pictures of Katie in action.

Shadows of Summer

I found this little video on my Flip Video Camera so I thought I would upload it to YouTube.  This happened a few years ago in the summer.  Katie and Savanna would get on the trampoline and create a routine.  I stuck up into Savanna's room and recorded this one.  It is nice to remember these nice summer days now that it is stinking dang cold outside.

Christmas Tree 2011

Ok, I thought of naming this one, "its starting to look a lot like Christmas" but it seemed just a little too cheesy even though I am the king of cheesy.  So, I'm going with a bland name of "Christmas Tree 2011".  Sorry all of your cheesy subscribers.





I don't know if any of you knew but Facebook is no longer importing blog posts into facebook.  So, you will have to subscribe to my blog to get the updates now.

Thanksgiving is over and unfortunately for me, I caught a cold on Wednesday.  So, I was sniffling and sneezing all the way through the 4 day Thanksgiving weekend.  Of course, as soon as Monday comes around, I am feeling a lot better.

While surfing around the internet, I came across this cartoonists blog.  So, I subscribed.  This is a great little cartoon about Thanksgiving.

If you want to subscribe to his blog, go to his site.  http://www.mormoncartoonist.com/

Wardle Reunion 2011

This year the Wardle Family had their family reunion at Downatta Hot Springs.  Of course, I bring my flip video along to record the events.  It looks like we just ate food most of the time but in reality, we did do other things.  I don't remember any of the other things but I'm sure we did something.  Just Kidding!

Black Friday?

Yesterday we looked through the humongous Thursday paper (just a reminder that we still have a paper route) to see what kind of deals we could find for Black Friday.  Deanna put together a plan and toward the evening, she invited me to come along and check out the lines.  I grabbed my coat and said "Sure" and jumped in the car. It was about 8:30pm. We drove out to BestBuy and was amazed at how many crazy people were standing out in the cold to wait for the doors to open at midnight to go in and get some great buys on electronics.  As we passed by we decided that we probably wouldn't get any good deals in there since there was already a huge line around the side of the building.  We then drove by Target and looked at that line. Again, a few loons standing out in the cold.  Deanna then suggested we drive by Walmart to check it out.  Happily, I drove the car around the corner and headed to Walmart.  We arrived and didn't see a line at all, however, the parking lot was almost completely full.  If you know Walmart parking lots at all, you will know that there is a huge gigantic selection of parking stalls to choose from on a regular shopping day.  So, seeing this outrageous amount of cars parked should have given me a clue that the relatively calm exterior was no indicator of what might be happening inside.  We parked out in the "back 40" and walked around a mile and a half to get to the front doors (or so it seemed).  We entered and that is when the mayhem began.  We were given a map with dots and locations.  The dots had numbers which indicated which sales items would be sold at which locations and at what times.  I happily looked around and was glad that I wasn't too involved at that point.  I thought we were just going to walk around and look at the crazy people and head home.  Well, Deanna had other plans.  There were a couple of great deals that would be occurring in that store that night and she wanted to take advantage of them while we were still there.  So, we walked around and found the enterances to the maze of  isles that would be selling these particular items.  We entered one particular set of isles that had been roped off and the Walmart attendant notified us that we were about the 30th in line and that we were guaranteed one of these items.  We entered the maze and navigated ourselves to the back of the line.  "What time does this item actually go on sale?" I wondered to my self. So, I leaned over to Deanna and asked, "What time does this item go on sale?" hoping and praying that she said 10:00pm.  She fumbled through the papers and maps and said, "12:00 midnight".  Without being too frantic, I looked at my watch.  8:45pm.  My heart sank, my countenance shuttered and my back began to hurt.  I then realize that I was there for the long haul and not just a visit and that I had become one of those "crazy" shoppers I was gawking at just seconds earlier.  I was going to be sitting on this hard tiled floor until midnight and probably much later.  Thank heavens for Angry Birds!

Below is one of my "breaks" from sitting in line on the Walmart floor.  If you can spot Deanna in these shots, you win a free trip to Walmart where you can sit on the floor for over 3 hours.

Return Missionary

Most of our family traveled to Portland Oregon to see Blake Wight after he returned from his mission to Moscow Russia. Blake is looking good and seemed to adapt well to the change in culture after returning to the US of A. The kids loved hanging out with cousins and the adults enjoyed sitting and talking with each other. The night before Blake's talk in church, we sat down as a family and had a chance to ask him questions about his mission and had him share his testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was great to hear some of his stories and experiences. I think his example will help other prospective missionaries solidify their desire to serve. The video below is the little unofficial reception after church.

two events

This photos shows 2 important events at this point in our family's life.  First, it shows that our furnace has died.  A few days ago, our furnace stopped blowing air through the ducts in our house.  I went down to the old furnace to see if I could figure it out.  The fan belt had broken so we needed it replaced.  We called the "heating and air" guys to check it out.  He replaced the belt and left.  A day later we heard this really loud squealing noise from our furnace and the furnace wouldn't shut itself off.  It just kept running and running.  We called the heating and air guys again to check it out.  Well, the ball bearings were going out on the fan shaft (it's all ball bearing these days).  Plus, our thermostat wasn't working to shut off the furnace properly.  Fixing these couple of issues would put us at around $800 to repair.  So, we decided to buy a new furnace.  While we were waiting for the new furnace we borrowed a couple of space heaters from Kim Critchfield.  So, Savanna is sitting in front of one of these space heaters.  So, this photo is to help us remember our week of living like the people on "Little House on the Prairie".  Wearing sweats around the house instead of shorts and wearing stocking caps to bed at night.

Secondly, this photo was taken at 4:30 in the morning.  This is when we get up to do the paper route.  All of the papers have been folded and are laying on the ground ready to be delivered.  We have now been doing this paper route for over a year.  I can't believe that we have done it that long.  I am definitely ready to quit the paper route but my two kids don't want to give it up.  They like the money more than they like the early mornings.  Good for them.